Stormy Weather

Wow!  It has been pretty crazy in Michigan lately.  It seems like storm after storm have come rolling through with nice hot muggy weather in between.  

We had a pretty bad storm on Friday night and I ended up staying at work for extra hours due to power outages.  For those that don't know, I work in a call center for one of the major utility companies in Michigan.  On Sunday, Charlie and I were watching a movie and when the movie was done we noticed it was getting dark out.  It was only 4pm though.  Charlie decided to put away the lawn chairs and I decided to cut some lettuce from the garden before the rain hit.  I walked out the door and about 50 feet to the garden and then saw lightning. I turned around to see the other side of the sky that I couldn't see when I first stepped out of the house.  I saw very scary skies and the trees across the street were waving wildly and bowing over in my direction.  A split second later I got hit with a face-full of dirt and was almost blown off my feet.  A second after that I got pelted by a wall of rain flying horizontally.  Charlie and I ran back to the door and as soon as we got there we heard a huge crack from the top of the tree breaking off.  Luckily it was not a tornado - although we were ready to run to the basement.  We lost a lot of trees in the area and a electric pole down the street.  I've just never had a storm sneak up on me like that!  It was intense.

I thought for sure they would call me in to work, but my phone never rang.  I think our cell tower must have been out, because I noticed I had a message when I went to bed that night from work.  Oops.  It never rang though.  Storms are always a blast at work.  People call in wanting to charge us money for their lost food or for the hotel that they chose to go to.  I don't think that they understand the meaning of "act of God" and that they should check with their home owners insurance.  We had nothing to do with creating the tornado that ripped out your trees and our lines.  Some people just don't get it though.  Hopefully soon all the power will be back up and everyone can just call and complain about their bills like normal.  

Another Saturday

I love Saturday!  It is my favorite day of the week.  Today I got up and checked out my little garden.  Things are coming along pretty well so far.  Here is a picture of about half of the garden.  It's lettuce, parsley, snow peas, brussels sprouts and onions (front to back).  

Then I went to the farmer's market to check things out there.  Not too much yet.  Mostly just lettuce and rhubarb (which I get for free at home) and plants for sale along with the soap, honey, and bakery place.  I thought about buying some basil but then I realized I had left my money in the car.  Maybe next time.

Then I had to go to work for some training.  While I was in town I decided to go to Walmart.  I really can't stand that place, but I had heard there were some nice blouses there for cheap.  I didn't have any luck with that.  I did splurge on the new Lego Indiana Jones game for my DS.  I have the star wars one and it is really fun.  I always feel bad for spending time playing video games, but sometimes I just need to escape reality for a while.  

Charlie is on his way home right now.  I'm not sure what else will happen today.  It is just so darn hot and humid right now.  I need to cut some lettuce out of the garden and I should do some laundry at some point this weekend.  We have a couple of movies we could watch.  Or we could enjoy the "free" air conditioning at the casino (although we shouldn't).  I'm glad tie-dye was last weekend and not this one.  It would have been way too miserably warm for that.  Here is a photo of me I just shot on my Mac.  

Tie Dye Weekend

This past weekend I went to Grand Rapids to do a batch of tie-dye with Jen and Rich.  I wasn't real thrilled with how the stuff I dyed turned out, but it was a really fun time.  I was experimenting with stitching the design into the fabric rather than folding the fabric and that didn't really work for me.  

Anyway, I got to spend lots of time with Rich and Jen and the girls and I got to see Jenna and her family.  I also made two new friends -- Rachel and Jane.  Making new friends is something that doesn't happen for me very often, so it was cool.  Rachel is staying with Rich and Jen for a while (originally from Portland, OR) and is interested in intentional community too.  Oh, and she can bake a mean gluten-free brownie!  Jane is the hippie-est chick I have met since I traveled around with the Rainbow Family.  It turns out that we went to the same Church growing up and I even went to Brazil with her brother and to Spain with her sister.  It is a small world.  

We did a bunch of tie dye on Saturday - until evening.  Rich made an awesome vegetable curry for dinner!  Then we hung on the porch until it got too cold and we went inside.  I got back to my folks house pretty late, but I still got up in the morning to go to breakfast with my Mom and Dad.  It is becoming a tradition for us to go out on Saturday or Sunday morning on the weekends I visit.  Then I packed up and headed back to the Holshoe house to rinse out the tie-dye.  The weekend flew by and I didn't get to see Amy or Dawn like I had wanted.  :(

Jen is going to try to sell some of our stuff at the Farmer's Market in Grand Rapids.  What doesn't sell there will probably go up on Etsy.com so be looking for future posts about how to find our "store".  What?  You've never been to Etsy.com?!?  Well, you should check it out!  It is only the coolest place on the internet for a crafter who wants to quit their day-job and just create full-time.  -sigh- 

Stalking the Wild Asparagus

I have been reading an interesting book called Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons (the Grapenuts spokesman back in the day).  I am really enjoying it.  It talks about all the different wild foods out there that most people pass up -- like cattails, acorns, wild berries, etc.  

Charlie and I have been going out on the weekend and hunting for asparagus.  It is a fun hobby to have.  We don't really save money or anything because of the gas we use to find the vegetable.  It just feels good to be able to have that direct link to your food source.  People are so far removed from where our food comes from.  Ever since humans first walked on earth they have either hunted or gathered or grown their own food.  Now we go to a job and do something totally unrelated to our own survival so we can get some money to buy some food that has been shipped in from who-knows-where and served in a Mc-wrapper.  Kids don't even know what meat is.  If they did I bet there would be more vegetarian kids out there.

Anyway, I think I will make some asparagus soup with this last batch we found.  I included a photo I shot of what wild asparagus looks like if anyone wants to try.  I would suggest getting the book from the library though for more insight as to where to look.  Basically we drive down the road near farmers fields and look along the top of the ditch between the road and the field.  They are usually along the edge of the ditch.  It is almost impossible to see the small ones so you have to look for a mature stalk that has already branched out and then look around the base for small stalks.  Also, if you find one, look around for the dead plant from last year.  Once you get an eye for the dead ones, you can spot those in the ditch and check to see if new ones are coming up.  

Slip and Slide

I was going through the Sunday paper last night and was looking at the store ads and coupons.  I saw this huge inflatable slide for sale (only $599!) in one of them.  This thing is monstrously large!  It is probably 15 feet tall and bigger than most backyards.  It had like three water slides and a huge pool at the bottom.  I just can't believe that someone would buy it.  $600 would buy a lot of trips to the waterpark.  Can you imagine storing it?  Even deflated it must take up a bunch of space.  

Maybe I'm just old fashioned.  I grew up in the 80's you know and we thought we were pretty spoiled because we got a Slip-n-Slide.  Remember those?  Basically it was a yellow piece of plastic that you ran the garden hose to.  You run across the yard and then dive onto your belly when you get to the plastic and slide to the other end.  That's a boatload of fun for a little kid but they were entirely too dangerous if you ask me.  First of all, you had to use these little metal stakes to hold down the edges of the plastic and if you didn't get them into the ground all the way you risked serious injury.  Not to mention all the twigs and rocks you would slide over - plastic doesn't really cushion very much.  Heaven forbid you don't keep the plastic completely wet and you hit a dry spot (screeching halt).  The worst was actually making it all the way to the end of the plastic and sliding right off into the grass.  Depending on your method of sliding (belly or butt) you would do a face-plant in the muddy tore-up grass or get a nice bathing suit wedgie.  Ah, those were the days.

Saturday morning

What a pleasant start to my weekend.  Today I got up fairly early and started cleaning up around the apartment.  It is warm enough to have the windows open to air out the place.  I had to run to the store to get a few necessities and I decided to go to the Farmer's Market.  It appears they will be busier than ever this year.  Right now they mostly just have plants for your garden and some crafts.  They had a local group of old men out there singing in German (I guess that's what you get in a place called "Frankenmuth").  

The local Master Gardener group was there promoting "Plant a Row for the Hungry" or PAR.  I had never heard of it before but it sounds really interesting.  Basically, you donate your extra produce from your garden at a drop site and the food gets distributed to the local food banks/kitchens.  They gave me a free tomato plant to stick in my garden.  I will definitely participate!  Check it out!

 http://www.gardenwriters.org/Par/index.html

Anyway, I came home and put together a flower arrangement from some flowers I had purchased.  Nothing fancy, just something Springy to cheer up the apartment.  I went outside then for a while and tried to find where the little black barn cat had her babies hidden.  I didn't find them but that is OK.  That means she's a good mama I guess.

Uncle Dave was outside too and we got to talkin'.  He always has some good stories to share.  We mostly talked about the farm and the animals today.  You know...like what is being planted and how much the average piglet he bought weighed and how the one exotic chicken they send him with the others always gets pecked at because it doesn't fit in.  Fascinating stuff.  He scared the pigs out of the barn for me so I could get some photos and then he cut some rhubarb for me too.  I really enjoy living here, and I'm gonna love it even more by the end of the weekend.  They have a spare room they were kinda saving in case their grand daughter wanted to move here.  Turns out she got an apartment down the road so they are going to let me rent the room.  Now we will have a two bedroom place and I will be able to spread out a bit.  I'm gonna move my craft area and computer desk in there.  I can't wait!  We'll have more room in the living room/kitchen/dining room (yes, it is one long room that is way over-crowded) and I will have my own little space to be creative.

Now I am just waiting for Charlie to get home.  I feel like I accomplished a lot already today.  

Laugh until you cry

Have you ever laughed so hard and so long that you end up crying?  I think most people have.  I was just looking at a few photos that I took with my Photo Booth program on my Mac.  My Mom and I were giving it a try and coming up with some silly fun-house mirror looking images that made us laugh so hard that we were crying.  My stomach hurt and my face hurt and I almost passed out because I couldn't catch my breath.  It was a good feeling though.  What fun times.

Now, have you ever cried so hard that you laughed.  Not so much fun there.   It has been a long time since I've done that.  Thank goodness.